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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25701796">fall o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ in love with me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmagnolias/pseuds/pinkmagnolias'>pinkmagnolias</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aromantic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Mild Self-Deprecation, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Poison Mention, Potions, deceit: what's the best way to deal with my feelings? confessing?? NAH, eating dubiously edible things (aka flowers), mostly by themselves, no poisoning actually happens, not explicitly mentioned but ze is, people are called dumb a lot, remus uses ze/zir pronouns in this</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:33:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,075</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25701796</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmagnolias/pseuds/pinkmagnolias</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Deceit decides to do something about his feelings for Virgil.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders &amp; Deceit | Janus Sanders</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>fall o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ in love with me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Cool,” Virgil said, flashing Deceit a peace sign and half smirk as he walked off, and Dee’s cheeks had <em> no right </em> to be blushing so hard like that. He managed a nod and a strangled sound that Virgil hopefully didn’t hear, then scrunched up his face at himself. What a disaster.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you trying to get your face stuck like that?” Remus asked, popping up beside him. Ze examined his expression for a moment before nodding. “It’s perfect. You look like a dead wombat.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m <em> totally </em> trying to get it stuck in one expression, Remus, because that can even happen.” Deceit rolled his eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Awww, okay,” ze said. Ze pouted for a moment before hoisting zir morning star over zir shoulder. “Well, it’s been too long since I’ve surprised my brother, so. Bye!”</p><p> </p><p>Deceit waved as ze left, then turned back to thinking about Virgil. Or more accurately, his problem with Virgil.</p><p> </p><p>If he kept malfunctioning whenever Virgil was around, simply because he <em> liked </em> him, that would be… inconvenient, to say the least. Counterproductive to doing what he needed to get done. He needed some way to get rid of these feelings, at least for a while.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe… a creative side could help with that? Certainly with summoning something to help, if such a thing existed.</p><p> </p><p>Roman liked romance too much to help with that though; he’d just push Deceit to confess his feelings to Virgil, which wouldn’t help him get rid of them <strike> and was entirely too nerve-wracking to think about</strike>. Remus, though… Remus would probably be delighted to help get rid of romantic feelings.</p><p> </p><p>Mind made up, Deceit ventured down to Remus’s room an hour or two later; by then ze’d be back from messing with Roman. And by then Deceit had come up with a more solid idea for what he could do to try and erase his feelings for Virgil.</p><p> </p><p>“A <em> reverse </em> love potion?” Remus asked, eyes glittering excitedly. “You’d rather hate ol’ Virgey than be in love with him? That’d certainly be interesting…”</p><p> </p><p>“Not hate him,” Deceit corrected. “Fall out of love with him. The potion would make it so I only like him platonically.”</p><p> </p><p>“That sounds <em> fantastic</em>,” Remus breathes. “And you need me to help conjure this up for you, right? I can totally do that!” Ze summoned a giant black cauldron, rusty and covered with dirt, and began summoning objects and dropping them in.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Make sure everything is edible by normal human standards, Remus</em>,” Deceit warned.</p><p> </p><p>“I will! Don’t worry!” Remus called over zir shoulder, muttering to zirself, “Flowers are edible for most people, right? They’re, like, a delicacy in France or something, they’re totally edible, yeah.”</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t want to eat flowers, Remus,” Deceit told zir.</p><p> </p><p>“But they symbolize friendship! They’re a necessary ingredient!” Remus protested. “Plus, I’m 90% sure snakes really like flowers, so I don’t know why you’re complaining.”</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe because you’re making this potion up as you go and we don’t even know if it’ll work, so if I don’t want flowers in it then you can replace them with something else?”</p><p> </p><p>“Pretty please?” Remus begged.</p><p> </p><p>Deceit rolled his eyes. “<em>Fine.</em> But that’s the only weird ingredient you get to add.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, sure, sure.” Remus nodded. Ze subtly fished something out of the cauldron—or more accurately, what ze thought was subtle, which meant ze was completely obvious about it—and vanished it. Deceit squinted suspiciously, but Remus grinned widely and said nothing, so he didn’t comment.</p><p> </p><p>By that evening, the potion was finished. Remus proudly presented a vial of it to Deceit, who took it and eyed it dubiously. It was the neon bright highlighter shade of faintly green-tinged yellow, but it smelled like some type of flower he couldn’t quite identify and Deceit didn’t think Remus would <em> actually </em> poison him. And he’d decided to try this, so he <em> was </em> going to try this.</p><p> </p><p>He took a deep breath and downed the liquid before he could second-guess it. Immediately his head spun and he stumbled a few steps until Remus caught his arms and steadied him.</p><p> </p><p>“Well?” Ze asked.</p><p> </p><p>“Give it a minute, I just took it,” Deceit told zir, slurring his words slightly. He was still dizzy, even with Remus helping steady him. “Can we sit down?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah! Yeah, yeah, hold on.” Remus waved zir hand. “Okay, you can just sit.” Deceit did, almost falling into a  beanbag.</p><p> </p><p>After a few minutes, the dizziness faded, and he slowly stood up.</p><p> </p><p>“So? Did it work?” Remus asked, shoving zir face right up against Deceit’s. “I don’t see anything different.”</p><p> </p><p>“How am I supposed to know? He’s not exactly here to prove it,” Deceit pointed out. Remus immediately conjured up a copy of Virgil, who smirked and leaned up in Deceit’s face.</p><p> </p><p>“You wanna make out?” Copy Virgil asked lowly.</p><p> </p><p>Deceit looked deadpan at Remus. “Virgil would never ask that. You <em> have </em> met him, right?”</p><p> </p><p>Remus threw zir hands up and vanished the copy. “I don’t know romance stuff, okay! I’m just trying to help, tar and feather me and dip me into a live volcano.”</p><p> </p><p>“Tar and feather you?” Deceit repeated. “<em>What</em>?”</p><p> </p><p>“Like ‘sue me’? I improved it.”</p><p> </p><p>“That’s… okay, whatever.”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Anyway</em>, do you think the potion worked?” Remus asked eagerly.</p><p> </p><p>“I suppose.” As ridiculous as the copy of Virgil had been, it usually would’ve given Deceit that fluttery feeling in his chest, and it hadn’t. And thinking about the real Virgil also didn’t stir up the butterflies in his stomach like it would’ve 10 minutes before, before he took the potion. “Thank you for your help, Remus.”</p><p> </p><p>“No problem, buddy!” Remus grinned a bit too widely.</p><p> </p><p>“Never call me that again.”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay, buddy!”</p><p> </p><p>Deceit scoffed and left the room.</p><p> </p><p>As he made his way back to his room, he considered the potion. He was pleased that it worked, of course, but he didn’t fancy repeating the vertigo any time soon, and they didn’t know how long the effects of the potion would last. Maybe in another 10 minutes or so the effects would wear off, and if that was the case it would be impractical to take it often enough to cancel out his feelings for Virgil.</p><p> </p><p>And there was the fact that he... didn’t exactly <em> mind </em> being attracted to Virgil, most of the time. They were… a little bit fun, these feelings, when they weren’t inconveniencing him. So maybe he’d be better off not taking the potion again? He wasn’t sure.</p><p> </p><p>Good thing he had time to think on it and come to a decision regarding the potion.</p><p> </p><p>Deceit turned the corner, letting a smile play along his lips, and spotted Virgil. Standing outside his door, fidgeting with his jacket and looking nervous about something. He looked up and saw Deceit.</p><p> </p><p>“Dee! Hi! I, uh, I had something I wanted to tell you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh?” Deceit raised an eyebrow, shoving down the sinking suspicion that he knew exactly what Virgil wanted to tell him. “Do tell.”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Virgil took a deep breath. He could do this! He just… had to… tell Deceit about his crush on him… but he could do this!</p><p> </p><p>“I, um, I like you. Romantically, that is, not just as a friend, though I like you as a friend too! And it’s okay if you don’t like me back, I understand, I just had to tell you, please don’t feel pressured to fake feelings for me or agree to be my boyfriend out of pity or something Ipromiseit’salrightifyoudon’tlikemelikethat.”</p><p> </p><p>He winced, partially at the babbling and partially in anticipation for a response. When one didn’t come after a few long, nerve-wracking moments, he looked over at Deceit.</p><p> </p><p>He was looking at him awkwardly, giving him a smile that looked decidedly fixed. So… he didn’t like Virgil back, then. He’d expected this. It still hurt.</p><p> </p><p>Virgil faked a smile. “Alright, then. I understand; you don’t have to say it.”</p><p> </p><p>He walked past Deceit, trying not to cry as he made his way to the privacy of his room.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Deceit was officially the biggest idiot ever.</p><p> </p><p>“Remus!” He burst into zir room and flopped onto zir bed. “I’m an idiot.”</p><p> </p><p>“What’ve you done in the five minutes you were gone?” Remus asked. “Not that I’m refuting your idiot status.”</p><p> </p><p>“Virgil confessed his romantic feelings for me and I froze up, because how was I supposed to explain that I’d just taken a reverse love potion so I could stop being so in love with him for 10 minutes, and he happened to catch me while it’s still in effect so I don’t actually like him romantically right now even though I normally would? Except I paused for too long and now he thinks I was trying to figure out how to reject him nicely or something and I’ve really screwed everything up, haven’t I?”</p><p> </p><p>Remus burst into laughter.</p><p> </p><p>“Rude!” Deceit sat up, snatching a pillow and whacking zir with it. “I’m having a crisis here; have some sympathy! Oof.” Deceit flopped back down as his head both spun and started throbbing. “Well, this potion officially sucks.”</p><p> </p><p>After a minute the dizziness faded, though his head still hurt pretty bad.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Oh my gosh, I’m such an idiot</em>,” Deceit repeated as the full horror of the situation hit him. “What if that was my one chance and now I’ve screwed it up?”</p><p> </p><p>Remus finally calmed down from laughing and grabbed Deceit’s arm, hauling him up from the bed. “Come on.”</p><p> </p><p>“Remus! I’ve still got a headache, you didn’t have to pull me up so hard! And where are we going?” Ze ignored him and dragged him over to Virgil’s room. “Oh my gosh, Remus, no, he probably hates me now—” Deceit cut off his complaints as Virgil opened his door.</p><p> </p><p>Before Virgil could say anything, Remus said, “Hey! Dee over here is a dumdum and has <em> such </em> a big gay crush on you that he came to me and asked for me to make him a reverse love potion so he wouldn’t be head over heels for you for a bit, and you happened to catch him right after he took it, which is why he took so long to respond to your confession. Don’t worry, though! It’s all out of his system now, so when he tells you that he has a big gay crush on you and apologizes for making you think otherwise—which you <em> will </em> be doing, Dee, since you’re the one who had the idea and asked me to help you, which got you in this mess in the first place—then he really means it from the bottom of his big gay heart!”</p><p> </p><p>“Did you have to phrase it like that?” Deceit hissed at zir, but ze just grinned, shoved him at Virgil, and skipped off.</p><p> </p><p>Deceit turned back to Virgil, who looked at him tiredly and a little warily. His eyeshadow was smudged; had he been crying? Had he made Virgil cry? He didn’t think he could do this…</p><p> </p><p>But Virgil was still looking at him expectantly, so instead of running away like he was vaguely considering, Deceit blurted out, “I’m really sorry!”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s ok—” Virgil started.</p><p> </p><p>“No, it’s really not,” Deceit protested, shaking his head. “I should’ve said something instead of just staring at you; I really do like you, a lot, and I should’ve told you that instead of letting you assume otherwise.”</p><p> </p><p>“...Really?”</p><p> </p><p>Deceit huffed out a laugh and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah. Remus can tell you about it, if you want; we actually made a reverse love potion because I like you so much. It was still wearing off when you confessed to me, which is why I hesitated—though I still should’ve said <em> something</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, that was kind of a jerk move.”</p><p> </p><p>“A major jerk move.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah,” Virgil agreed. “But you… made a potion to stop liking me?”</p><p> </p><p>“It was an idiotic thing to do. And it’s worn off now, anyway, so it’s not a very effective potion,” Deceit told him. “I made a stupid choice deciding to make it, and a stupider choice deciding to drink it, and I regret it.”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay,” Virgil said slowly, and nodded. “So… what does this mean?”</p><p> </p><p>“Mean?”</p><p> </p><p>“Like… between us.”</p><p> </p><p>“It means that, if you’ll still have me, I’d be honored to be in a romantic relationship with you, Virgil.” Deceit told him.</p><p> </p><p>“I’d like that,” Virgil said, twining their hands together. “Boyfriends?”</p><p> </p><p>Deceit held up their joined hands and smiled at him. “Boyfriends.”</p>
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